


In the Embrace of Night

by Selaxes



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Death, Horror, Suspense, Undead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-02 21:38:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16313120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selaxes/pseuds/Selaxes
Summary: Strange events begin to revolve around Nick and Judy and a malevolent entity that shouldn't exist shatters the duo's perceptions and blurs the lines of the possible and impossible...So much so it's questionable either will escape with their lives much less their souls.





	In the Embrace of Night

Nick Wilde had no doubt that he was finally going to die. So many tough cases, close scrapes and near misses that could have ended him, and now he saw his death in the eyes of his partner and lover as she strode across the leaf and litter strewn grass of the forgotten Unity Heights cemetery. None of this would have come to pass if he and Judy hadn’t tried following a lead on a series of strange murders. The further they dug, the stranger things became, the more unbelievable.

Judy Hopps still looked like the bunny that had barreled into his life, turning everything upside down and inside out, challenging the fox’s perceptions. Moving at breakneck speed from disaster to catastrophe and somehow coming through each event unscathed had been almost miraculous, though the true miracle had been when the grey and white rabbit had touched something deep inside Nick, something he thought had withered and died long ago. 

Her face was still achingly beautiful, her fur still soft and her ears quite expressive. Feet with adorable toes gave way to lean legs that were both shapely and deceptively strong and from there swelled into very feminine hips that rolled oh, so enticingly as she walked towards the fox. Undulating with every step was the bunny’s trim waist, its taper adding to her form like a trained belly dancer before again flaring a little with her chest, modest swells for potential breasts that wouldn’t truly fill out until there were young to nurse.

The uniform that the bunny was partial to only accentuated her form, a vision of loveliness that Nicholas P. Wilde had never tired of gazing at.

Then his eyes passed her mouth and the thudding of his heart that had once beat with affection faltered with a thrill of fear at what he saw exposed by her smile. Her front teeth, one just a touch longer than the other, the little imperfection only adding to his Judy’s appeal, were now bracketed by a pair of very unrabbit-like fangs that were longer than his own. 

But even more terrifying than the ivory needles that she now bore were her eyes.

Gone were the soulful, amethyst orbs that had caused a thrill of deepest affection in the fox, eyes that could go from hard and stony to warm and deeply loving in an instant. Now her eyes were black with irises that were colored a deep, dark red that all but glowed in the dim twilight of the ancient estate house that their investigation had brought them to. It was within those fiery orbs that Nick saw his death. Never again would he wake in the morning to find her looking at him across the short expanse of a pillow with shades of lavender and love. They wouldn’t gaze at the fox in wonder as they made love together…

***************

With a gasp, Nick sat up in bed, his heart hammering in his chest as he tried to swallow down the lump of fear in his throat. His paw rubbed hard against his sternum as he got his bearings. With a surge of relief the fox realized that he was in his and Judy’s condo that they had moved into after dating for six months. When said bunny touched him in concern, Nick started while also experiencing a moment of relief.

“Nick?” 

Her soft, concerned voice banished the urge to shiver and the fox turned to look at the lavender eyes filled with concern. “Bad dream,” Nick chuckled softly before pulling the bunny to him and holding her close, letting the warmth that radiated from her sooth him as he calmed and got both heart and breathing under control. Even as they shared contact, the dream that had frightened him began to tatter and vanish, like smoke on the wind until in just a matter of a couple of moments all that was left was the sense of wrongness and fading fear.

Instead of pulling away or poking fun at her fox, Judy held him tight, rubbing her cheek into the fur of Nick’s chest as her arms reached around him as far as they would go, squeezing with just enough strength to try and impart her concern. “It must have been a bad one to wake you up like that.” She released her hold with one arm to caress Nick’s cheek. “Want to talk about it?”

He gave his answer some thought before shaking his head. “There aren’t a lot of details that I can recall…just that I was afraid…” Shaking his head a little more vigorously Nick lay back down, pulling Judy with him, wrapping her in his arms. “I think this is what I need right now,” he whispered. “Just to hold you and feel you with me safe and sound…”

“Okay,” Judy said lifting her head high enough to give the fox a soft kiss. “Just remember that I’m here for you as much as you are for me.”

***************

As summer wound down and turned into autumn, warm days and cool nights finally giving way to the first hints that winter was drawing closer, strange events began to occur all over the city. 

And once more events seemed to center around Judy Hopps and Nicholas Wilde.

Had they not stumbled across that first body, a young antelope in an alley, her scream drawing the couple as they left a movie paw-in-paw late in the evening, maybe none of the following events would have happened. But, being who and what they were, neither could let that final sound of terror go unanswered and found her, mouth open to utter desperate sounds that would never reach the ears of another living soul, the strange figure that vanished into the shadows of the alley ignoring the shouts of both Nick and Judy to stop. The body of the nineteen year old antelope was still warm, but there wasn’t a drop of blood left in her. Strange marks on her throat that turned out to be bite wounds caused rabbit and fox to wonder if they were looking at some lingering, insane result of Dawn Bellwether’s plot to gain control of the city.

Then other bodies began to turn up. All the victims were different in that they were both predator and prey, young and old, male and female. The only similarity that linked them together was that they were all drained of blood with odd bite marks upon throats, or wrists, or places that it was easy to access the arteries and veins that carried the victims’ lifeblood.

Then there was the shadowy figure that witnesses claimed to see, accounts of something impossibly fast, rather small, with, as unbelieving as it all sounded, glowing red eyes that glittered in the night.

In the weeks that followed the city began to grow fearful in a way that it hadn’t during the Night Howler conspiracy. Playgrounds were abandoned as mothers and fathers hurried their children indoors well before sundown, businesses that normally thrived in the afterhours of the day saw a substantial drop in customers and clientele. Only the most brave or foolhardy ventured out in the night. And through it all, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde pursued the mysterious figure, compiling clues and evidence, waiting on forensics to come up with something that could be used to finally run this killer to ground, to bring the murderer to justice and halt the disturbing events that left drained bodies and shattered lives in its wake.

When something was finally uncovered, a small smudge of soil and plant debris that pointed to one area of the city, fox and bunny steeled themselves to bring the killer in, to avenge the victims that had fallen to depraved acts that went beyond simple chemically induced savagery. The killer was brazen and seemed to delight stumping not just the ZPD, but Nick and Judy in particular.

Nick was determined to catch the fiend, but with Judy it had become an obsession, a personal crusade, so much that her sleep became troubled and she would toss and turn, not even finding the arms of her fox to be comforting enough to give her some solace. She would spend hours more past their normal duty shift each day pouring over the files of collected information on the victims that had continued to show up with regularity, one every three days. Then events took a turn for the worse, but Nick hadn’t discovered how terrible until it was too late.

******************

One night, Judy didn’t come home from a simple trip to the store after a particularly long day spent trying to track down elusive leads. The bunny sent her lover home ahead of her so she could pick up the makings for a simple dinner of comfort foods for both of them.

At first Nick didn’t seem to think anything of his partner’s tardiness. Then a ‘going to be a little late’, the message received on his phone via text, turned into an hour. That hour turned into two. By the time night fully fell the fox started to become frantic. Tucking his service weapon into the back of his pants and tossing on a light jacket against the autumnal chill as he went out of the apartment he and Judy shared to find his partner and lover, a knot of icy dread forming in the pit of his stomach.

The mammals that ran the grocery store near their home remembered seeing the bunny. They even recalled her talking to a rabbit that she seemed to know, though the other lapin had filled everyone that saw him with a sort of wariness that made them want to avoid him, but no one could specify why.

However, they’d all been quite clear in the descriptions they gave of the strange rabbit. He was white furred with small black markings on his muzzle and between his ears and spoke with a peculiar accent. They were all of the mind that Judy, a familiar enough customer, must have known the other rabbit as they left together, the basket that the doe had been filling with different goods forgotten as she left with the strange buck. A few of the cashiers and stockers knew of Nick and Judy’s relationship, especially as they hadn’t gone to great lengths to hide it, and thought it rather upsetting that Judy had been hanging on the stranger’s arm as they departed, the basket forgotten. They were also quite disgusted with the almost simpering and vapid expression on the bunny’s face as she left. They’d thought Officer Hopps was better than that after seeming so happy and content in her relationship with Nick.

As far as the fox was concerned, something far more sinister must have happened. He and Judy had formed a bond and deeply satisfying relationship built on love and trust that had seemed, to him at least, unshakable. How many times had Judy come to his defense when others had disparaged their pairing, or coldly shot down the advances of other rabbits when they offered her something other than shacking up with a filthy fox?

It wasn’t until Nick began the walk home, his mind running in circles, that he realized something beyond the ordinary was happening when he found Judy’s iCarrot in the gutter of the street.

When she didn’t come home at all, Nick went to Bogo and the rest of the officers in Precinct One.

The looks of sympathy turned into ones of determination when a full day went by without hearing from the city’s first rabbit police officer. Concern fueled a massive hunt, nearly all of the fox and bunny’s coworkers convinced that Judy had somehow been taken against her will and became the driving force for turning the entirety of Zootopia inside out and upside down.

It wasn’t until the morning of the third day, Nick at the end of his physical and emotional reserves that he found a note waiting for him on his desk, no one in the Precinct knowing how it got there and nothing showing up on the video surveillance cameras. It was written on the kind of paper that specialty stationery stores might sell, thick, high quality vellum with flowing script that looked to have been written with a wide nib fountain pen.

 

~Officer Wilde,

I would recommend that you forego your quest to find the Lady Judith. I have watched as the two of you have doggedly pursued me and, while your efforts were valiant, they will certainly be your undoing if you persist. 

I have chosen to make the Lady Judith mine, and this is a competition that you, determined as you may think you are, have no chance to succeed at or to vanquish me, and I’d really rather put this affair to rest. She belongs to me, now and forever. Though, if you feel you must, come fight me for her. While it will heighten my regard for your character, I must inform you that it will be a futile exercise of misplaced bravado. Stay away. Finish living your silly and brief mortal existence. However, if you must fight for her, meet me in the old caretaker’s house in the Unity Heights district cemetery after sundown and we may conclude our business.

I would recommend coming alone. I should think that needlessly wasting the lives of your friends and colleagues is something I can guarantee if you decide to bring any of your cohorts.

V. Teppes~

 

The script was immaculate, though a little archaic in appearance, and Nick swallowed the various lumps of disgust, hurt and rage that vied for control. By the time he regained control over himself, Nick realized that he’d crumpled the letter in his paws and carefully unfolded it to study the words once more. His brain began to organize what he knew, had been told, read…all of the little details of the entire case, letting things percolate in the back of his mind as he stood from his desk. He’d learned while going through the ZPD Academy that he had a rather analytical mind and if the fox would let his subconscious work on a problem he could normally figure it out in a relatively short amount of time. He let what he and Judy had found, the information from the other murders. With a jolt there was only one thing that came to mind, insane as it was to contemplate. 

Working on his conundrum, Nick walked from his desk, pausing only long enough to glance at Judy’s empty work station before continuing on to Bogo’s office. 

The cape buffalo was more than happy to give Nick the day off, worried about the fox’s mental status and the exhausted appearance of one of his top officers. With that taken care of, Nick headed to the apartment that he and Judy had shared, their combined scents that hit his nose as soon as he opened the door only feeding the course of action he believed had little choice to take. Loosening his collar, the fox flipped open his laptop and let it boot up as he went into the kitchen and poured a large black coffee that required time in the microwave before it was ready for consumption. Drink in paw, Nick returned to the small computer and brought up the Zoogle search engine, typing out his subject with one finger as he sipped at the blessedly strong brew.

Nick then typed in the only thing that his thoughts had come up with, shaking his head as he did so.

Vampire:

The amount of sites dedicated to the lore of vampires was astonishing, though Nick quickly determined that most of the sites were fan based crap, Goth mammals that found the notion of the undead to be romantic, exotic and erotic with all sorts of stories and art depicting the creatures as not only fascinating but desirable. By the fourth page of listings the fox began to growl in frustration until he stumbled across one site that was different.

Nick tossed the remains of his mug back as he read, the information far different than the insipid drivel he’d had to sift through. There were small points in the text that all but screamed to the cop portion of Nick’s mind, details that were too precise, too clinical. The more Nick read, the more he began to get the inclination that not only were vampires real, but there were a few individuals that had truly encountered them, fought them…hunted them.

A vampire wasn’t undead as so many believed, though neither were they truly alive, the creatures an abomination that existed in a state halfway between being alive and dead that needed the blood of the living to continue. While some theorized that the blood carried the nutrients necessary to maintain their bodies, others, a small group of the already miniscule numbers that took the existence of these things seriously, believed that there was a more esoteric aspect to blood that sustained them. The author of the website believed that the very essence of the victim, infused with the lifeforce of the target, was what kept a vampire in their state of apparent health and immortal form, something almost akin to magic, and even cited the correlation between the drinking of blood to the use of blood in ancient rites rife with sorcery, witchcraft and heathen rituals.

Nick pressed on, his ears alternately flicking upward and pressing tight against his skull.

The need for blood, a hunger or thirst that manifested in every case of vampirism from around the world, was a universal detail, no matter the origin of the myth. According to the site a true vampire required living blood once every three days, draining the victim completely, normally the deed leaving strange wounds where the blood was drunk from. Nick felt the fur along his spine raise as he skimmed over the details that had matched the bodies being found throughout the city.

Some of the so called experts felt that vampires could be killed with the use of fire, but then what existed that couldn’t be killed with fire. They were also of the mind that a stake of wood, preferably something of the holly, yew and birch families, would kill a vampire if it were driven through the creature’s heart. Nick smirked in derision. Who wouldn’t die with a chunk of wood driven through the heart?

There was a lot of back and forth arguments regarding the uses of various religious symbols, holy water and the like, though one commenter pointed out that it was less the symbol or particular flavor of faith than it was the potency of belief. There was a rather universal agreement that silver was a particularly effective against vampires, some saying that silver bullets were rather the desired manner to employ the metal in the destruction of the living dead.

Through all of his reading and searching, Nick kept encountering the name of one individual that seemed the most calm, the most clinical in their descriptions and counter arguments was someone named V. H., a name that had appeared on several of the forums. Opening another window, Nick found a rather lackluster site that had some of the information that he’d just looked over along with other tidbits such as habits of vampires, preferred lairs, victims, even the process that a mammal could be turned into a vampire. 

It described the strength of a vampire being double, at times even triple what it was when the individual was still alive. It also mentioned the sunlight would destroy them, but so would fire, and a stake through the heart, though there was no given reason of why, but agreed that the best wood to use was either holly or briar, even cedar in a pinch. A silver bullet would work so long as the heart was destroyed.

There was an argument that despite becoming a vampire, the mammal that had been turned was still the same individual they’d been in life, but that the need, the desire for blood overrode all else. The author of the site recommended that even though the personality and memories of the turned were still there, it was prudent to end the life of the vampire should the hunger take over, ending whatever threat might exist.

Nick continued to read until he noticed that the light in the apartment had faded and looked up with raw eyes to see that it was nearly dusk. Setting the coffee mug down, the bitter dregs long grown cold, Nick went to the bedroom that he and Judy had shared and stepped to the desk and pulled his badge out and buckled it to his pants before opening a steel box and pulling out an actual pistol. The magazine was full, though if any of the information on the sites he’d researched were to be believed, the gun would be as effective as spitballs. Nick still felt a little better with the weapon holstered in the back of his pants. As an afterthought he grabbed the second badge that was there, hoping that Judy’s shield would give him the strength and luck that he might need before the sun came up in the morning. So armed he got his car keys and left the apartment with the intention of finding a hardware store.

*****************

Unity Heights was one of the older neighborhoods of Zootopia, almost as bad as Happytown. It was the sort of rundown place where the residents kept to themselves, never looking each other in the eyes. At night the gang members, the thugs, petty criminals and such would come out, like vermin shunning the light. Nick found the old cemetery with little problem, the stone wall and wrought iron gate keeping out all but the most determined trespassers. Between weathered headstones were the remnants of walkways and grassy paths now choked with weeds and brambles, the trees dark and foreboding without regular pruning as they reached skeletal branches to the sky.

As if fate were laughing at the fox an errant breeze swept the old cemetery stirring dried, desiccated leaves while moaning and whistling mournfully through the decrepit grounds. Not that the moment couldn’t get any creepier for him. The only things that he felt he had in his favor were a pair of decent eyes that had no problem seeing in the gloom and the pistol at his back.

Nick swallowed and stepped to the wrought iron gate. If Judy was here, he’d find her. His ears jerked in surprise as he depressed the latch and it disengaged before swinging open, only the slightest squeal accompanying it from aged hinges. He’d expected a grinding screech if anything. Taking a breath, Nick stepped through and closed the gate behind him.

The caretaker’s house was at least a century and a half in age, the mortar between the red-brown bricks crumbling in areas where the ivy had gotten a foothold and dug roots and tendrils into the aged masonry. Other areas were rife with the green of moss, the whole of the structure carrying a sort of mildewed scent after weathering countless summers, rainstorms and snows. Long forgotten flower beds hinted at past beauty and an attempt to lighten the real purpose of the house and the grounds it dominated. Benches that once held wood slats were reduced to rusted, rotted artifacts and served as yet more places for the ever present ivy to climb.

As for the house itself, most of the bottom windows were boarded up, the thick plywood warped and discolored with some bearing spray painted tags from gangs or young mammals that had trespassed at unspecified points in the near past. On the upper floors many of the glass panes sat in half rotted sills and frames.

Nick shook his head to clear it of the feelings of unease, ignoring the shiver that ran down his spine at the pervading gloom of the setting. It was almost cliché that he would be told to come here if he wanted to get Judy back. With a sigh, adjusting the strap of the long case he carried on one shoulder and touching the butt of the gun at the small of his back, the fox put a foot on the first step, the wood looking as if it would disintegrate with a touch, though surprisingly held him as he took the next riser. Once on the porch that ran the entire front of the house Nick found that the door was unlocked and even oiled from recent use, the semisweet smell of a common household lubricant reaching his sensitive nose.

There was barely a chance to look around the room that Nick found himself in before the door slammed shut of its own accord. Wincing at the loud sound, sure that it had been heard as far away as Tundratown, Nick surveyed the room. The floor was comprised of warped hardwood boards that were covered in dust with a mildewed oriental style carpet that had given in to age and moths, and far too many candles, the glare from dozens of pillars and votives and tapers a touch harsh after the gloom of outside. Furniture for mammals a little larger than he were covered with half rotted dust cloths and cobwebs that hung from tattered shreds of antiquated wallpaper. 

Before he could do more than pan his head from right to left, a cold, harsh laugh in a grating tenor sounded from somewhere above the fox, chilling Nick’s blood in his veins.

“Bravo, Officer Wilde!” the voice said in a thick accent. “I applaud your audacity!”

Nick jerked his head up to see a smallish figure sitting on the balustrade of the upper floor, crouched on his legs with his toes curled curiously around the wood railing. “Where’s Judy?” the fox croaked from a mouth and throat gone suddenly dry.

“Oh, she’s about,” the figure said, staying in shadow for the moment even though he stood, balancing easily on the rail. “Would you like to see her? I’m sure that she’s simply hungering to see you.” 

The speaker walked a little ways along his perch before leaping off and landing lightly on the floor, his arms outstretched as he fell. Little puffs of dust rose from his feet as he looked up at the fox. It was a rabbit with mostly white fur, though there were patches of black on his cheeks that joined a triangular portion that sat between his ears. He looked a little gaunt, but the most disconcerting traits were the long claws that extended from his thin fingers, his paws looking bony, cheeks sunken, but by far, the worst were his eyes, the sclera was a dark pink with the irises and pupils showing as a dark, almost luminescent, ruby red.

Then the rabbit smiled, long needle sharp fangs bracketing his buckteeth.

“What have you done with her?” Nick growled, anger starting to nudge his fear aside at this…this thing touching Judy. “Where’s Judy?!?”

The buck snickered in his high, nasally voice, his words laced with that implacable thick accent even though his speech was quite intelligible. “As I said in the note I left on your desk, she belongs to me, now.” He made a show of leaning closer to the fox, his small, pale pink nose wriggling furiously as he scented the air. “Oh, now that’s a lovely bouquet! I’m so used to food smelling of fear that something like anger is actually rather spicy! Truly tantalizing, you sweet, stupid, fox.” 

Nick watched as the rabbit continued to walk just out of reach, his eyes half lidded, though it did little to soften his monstrous appearance, his nose still working furiously. Twice he lifted a paw as if to touch Nick, the fox flinching each time though his rage continued to build at the thought of what might have happened to his beloved Carrots.

“I am so going to enjoy your blood,” the rabbit hissed, almost as if he were trying for a seductive tone but fell quite short. The manner that his jaw trembled gave the fox the impression that it was all the creature could do to keep from leaping at him. “But I am a fair sport, Nicholas Wilde. Whatever weapons you have you may go ahead and retrieve. A little bit of a thrill before I share your essence with my new and very fair bride will whet the appetite, hmm? Isn’t that rather chivalrous of me?”

Keeping a wary eye on the creature, Nick slid the round case from his shoulder and unzipped the end. He withdrew a pair of cut pool cues, the dark stained hardwoods having also been sharpened. The look on the fanged rabbit’s face was one of surprise. “Oh, weren’t expecting these, were you? Funny thing about the internet is there are lots of sites that talk about vampires. Most of them are complete garbage, but enough of them talk about a wood stake through the heart being a good way to make sure when I kill you, you stay that way.”

“And I see you have one for me and one for the very beautiful Judith,” the rabbit pointed out. “Maybe I should let you tend to her first, watch as you try to drive it through your former lover’s heart before she kills you.”

“Oh, both of these are for you,” Nick retorted as he transferred both improvised stakes to one paw while going for a pocket. “I’m going to put one through your shriveled heart, you son of a bitch.”

“And the other?” the vampire asked in an amused tone.

“That one’s going straight up you fuzzy little ass.” Before the vampire could react Nick slipped his right paw from the pocket it had been in to pull out a small spray bottle. “But first how’s about a little mace!”

The mist hit the small creature in the eyes, the result being an unholy scream as wisps of smoke began to fume as he clawed and pawed at the burning sensation that ravaged him. The vampire writhed and twisted before pulling his paws down, his expression even more grotesque with the raw skin that blistered and bubbled after the fur sloughed away like a pelt that had scabrous sores, the result not unlike what an acid splash would do. Even as his mouth opened in a furious hiss, his fangs seeming to grow even more pronounced, the monster found Nick waiting, his stakes held at the ready.

“The other thing that a lot of those websites mentioned was the effect of silver. Who knew you could get silver colloid so easily at natural food stores?” 

The monstrous looking rabbit launched himself at Nick, the fox barely registering the attack. The little vampire was fast, there was no doubt about that, and he barely managed to keep the rabbit’s long claws from ripping into him with one of the stakes. Then it became a challenge of attack and counter attack, feint and retreat. Nick had the advantage of size and reach, the vampire rabbit had speed and the virtue of being a small target. For each injury that Nick was able to inflict with the stakes, their sharp points causing wounds that leaked a foul smelling, thick black substance like putrefied blood, the vampire was able to repay in kind, scratches that burned painfully as the fox lost tiny amounts of blood that eventually began to take their toll.

The two separated, Nick holding his stakes up as he watched the vampire and was watched in return, blood red eyes locked with emerald. Then the rabbit lifted a paw up to lick at the little droplets of the fox’s blood that clung to claws and shivered with almost orgasmic delight. “I can see why Judith chose you. You taste exquisite!”

Nick didn’t have the breath for a reply, panting heavily. He was nearing the end of his endurance and couldn’t waste the energy. Instead, he gestured with the stakes for the vampire to continue the fight, something the undead rabbit was more than happy to oblige with.

It was a full on charge and just as the fox began to step back with one foot to meet the assault he found the edge of the rotted carpet, enough of it still holding together to tangle him up and lose his balance. Panicking for a split second, Nick regained his footing just in time to catch both of the vampire’s feet to his chest, the impact sending him flying backwards into one of the draped chairs, the ancient piece of furniture collapsing under his weight and inertia.

Something was wrong as Nick tried to shake his head clear and draw breath. His chest immediately seized up in sharp, burning pain, the fox feeling the ends of more than a couple of ribs grinding together from where they’d broken from the impact, and looked up when the rabbit laughed in sneering victory.

“Stupid fox,” he said and began to actually sashay towards the downed mammal. “Only a few, a very specific few, have ever taken on my kind and won. What arrogance, what audacity to think that you could actually defeat me! You’re food, Officer Wilde. Nothing more.” He batted the raised stakes out of the fox’s paws before leaning closer, smiling when Nick turned his head at the smell of charnel rot that wafted from the vampire's maw. “And such a fine meal you’ll be, too.”

Nick watched as the vampire’s muzzle opened obscenely wide, his fangs glistening in the candlelight of the old house. With a grunt of pain and extreme effort he pulled the pistol out and pointed it at the rabbit, his finger tightening until it fired. The sound was almost painful and the report caused Nick’s teeth to vibrate in his skull. The first round hit and drove the vampire back just a little, as did the second, then the third. Nick continued to fire until the slide locked back, the magazine empty. The fox had been so desperate that he hadn’t even thought of saving the last round for himself.

The vampire chuckled as he stood, only a few feet further away than he’d been and pulled open the ruins of his shirt to show the fox the wounds that were already closing. Unlike the wood or the silver colloid, the bullets were just regular copper jacketed rounds, not something that was effective against his kind. As the injuries healed, the bullets, mashed and deformed, were pushed from the gaunt, thin chest of the vampire and landed with little thuds on the filthy carpet.

“Insolent fox,” the creature chided, his smile turning into a sneer. “You have nothing left. I can see it in your eyes and I can smell the defeat on you.”

As if to prove the monster wrong, Nick mustered as much breath as he could before he spat at the vampire. “Fuck you.”

“No, no, stupid fox. Fuck you!” the rabbit hissed as he leapt for Nick’s throat, his maw opened to its fullest.

Nick flinched and wanted to look away but found it was like trying to look away from an impending car accident, as if he were completely enraptured by the horror that was about to descend. 

Had he looked away, though, he wouldn’t have seen the silvery grey blur that intercepted the vampire with a screech of rage and defiance. Judy rolled with the impact, gaining her feet as the monster careened into the wall at the far side of the room. She spared a fraction of a moment to look at the fox…her fox, before plucking one of the sharpened pool cues from the floor. With speed that was even better than what she normally exhibited, Judy launched herself at the vampire, her own mouth opened wide in a guttural hiss, her fangs glinting in the golden light of flame that filled the room as she drove the pointed section of wood through the other’s chest.

“Don’t you touch Nick!” the bunny screamed as she yanked the stake out and plunged it in again, screaming with unbridled fury before leaving the stake in the sodden, reeking black mess that had been the vampire’s torso. When she stood and turned to Nick, Judy fought the urge to cry at the look of terror that crossed his face before she began to walk slowly towards him.

Nick swallowed, happy to see his Judy...hisCarrots, horrified at what she was, unbelieving that this was where life had taken them. All the wonderful times, the saving each other, the nights lost in passion and soft gentle days in tender affection were gone, turned into a nightmare that was both unbelievable and inescapable.

“Carrots…” the fox breathed, his eyes filling as the bunny drew closer, his eyes roaming up and down her figure before finally locking gazes with her. Nick couldn’t help the flinch as she knelt before him, her own fangs protruding a little over her bottom lip, her red eyes filled with a sort of sadness, but beneath that…hunger. “I…I’m sorry…”

Whatever she’d expected, that wasn’t it, and as she tilted her head quizzically, dirt from where she’d been put in the ground during her transformation into a vampire herself sifted from her fur, the satin nightgown that she’d been dressed in smudged with dirt and dust. “Sorry for what?” she asked, her new teeth causing her words to come out with a tiny lisp before her paw darted to her muzzle, a pained and shocked expression replacing the one of confusion.

Nick watched as she touched her recently grown fangs, her tongue slipping out to follow suit, a wince as she cut herself exploring the addition to her teeth. 

“Nick?!? Am I…?” tears began to form in her eyes, but when they fell they left tracks of red, the bunny crying blood. “NO! No! He…What am I?!?”

The fox swallowed. “Like…him…”

Judy shook her head, the crimson tears flying as she clutched both paws to her face, denying what she knew was true. Even through her distress she could smell her lover’s blood, she could hear the beating of his heart. It pounded on her, in her ears, as if it were a tangible force, like the tides. And like the tides she found that it was impossible to resist. It battered her from without like a sound that was both heard and felt, and from within as a burning hunger and thirst unlike any Judy had ever known in her life.

And Nick knew it.

With tears of his own, and knowing that his injuries would prevent him from stopping her, the fox did the only thing he could. His paw lifted with a supreme force of will to cup her cheek. “You know I love you.”

It was a statement, an all the bunny could do was nod in silent reply, her fur growing thick with the blood she wept quietly.

“So many dreams lost…” he said.

Judy wasn’t aware of what was happening until it was too late. Nick’s paw grasped the back of her head, drawing her into a kiss that was so tender, so warm. Then before she could pull even a fraction of an inch away, tilted his head, his neck and throat exposed. Judy couldn’t have resisted even had she wanted to. Beneath the fur his neck drummed with the beat of his heart, the sound of his rushing blood and pulse even stronger than moments before.

Then she was on him, her paws wrapping tightly into his slashed and frayed shirt, her maw wrapped around his throat, but instead of nibbling at her fox lover as she had so many times before, her fangs ripped through flesh and fur and sinew, opening Nick up like a fountain that she latched onto and drank deeply, not needing to breath as she gulped down the coppery, salty-sweet fluid that gushed into her waiting muzzle. Each swallow filled her with life and strength, and for a moment a new connection formed as she viewed Nick’s memories of their times together. Everything, from jokes and pranks, the insults when they first met what seemed a lifetime ago, the quite moments, the passionate hours, all of it flowed into her with his very life.

Judy finally understood what Nick had felt for her, the meaning of the word mate, the love that filled him whenever he saw or thought of her. She could finally comprehend the simple bliss that he felt when he held her in the dark of the night, sharing a warmth that Judy would never again feel. And even as she continued to drink, feeling the beating of his heart growing weaker with each muzzleful, Judy wept for what she only now understood and what she had forever lost.

Finally there was no more and her body trembling, the bunny vampire pulled away, her face a rictus of heartbreak and agony as the only thing left connecting her to her beloved, sly, dumb fox was a strand of bloody saliva. She pulled his head to her breast, cradling him to her as she had so many times after they had made love, but this time there were no arms holding her as well, and the warmth was gone. Her mouth still open, the fur around her lips stained carmine, Judy threw her head back and uttered a wail of anguish and misery that had never before been uttered by another soul. When the wail faded, she simply held Nick and rocked his limp body.

******************

Judy was still in the same position she’d been in all night, Nick’s lifeless husk held tightly to her, his flesh seeming to absorb the coolness from her own undead body. Rigor mortis had come and gone, and now she could feel, could actually feel the coming of the sun. It was like a pressure that bore down on every square inch of her body and a part of what she was now screamed at her to flee, to find refuge deep in the ground, but the part that was still Judy Hopps, that was still Nick’s Carrots, screamed even louder.

Fresh tears stained the black lines that had already dried from her previous weeping a dark red as she stood, effortlessly picking the fox up with her as she straightened. A slight shift caused his head to loll on her shoulder and Judy silently told herself that her fox, her beautiful Nick was only sleeping…just sleeping, and that she would join him in that slumber soon.

Though she no longer needed to breath, the doe drew in a deep breath and let it out, the air no longer as sweet as when she’d been alive, and stood before the door. Then with strength born of her new form, Judy kicked the door, the force of the blow shattering most of the aged wooden panel, bits of it flying far out into the cemetery as the bunny walked out into the blazing morning light. She started smoking slowly at first, her fur withering away like cellophane that was put too close to a heat source. Then the light began to blister the flesh beneath, the smoke growing thicker. She made not a sound, the physical pain far from the wretched agony that lay within her heart.

Feet that began to burn carried her to the first step where she sat down, Judy’s arms still around the fox as she burst into preternaturally bright flames, like a flare gone completely out of control, and let those flames consumer her and her beloved Nick.

It was only fitting as there was no life without him, and only right she burn having taken that away from the only mammal that had ever touched the very core of her being.

*****************

“Chief? I really think you need to see this,” Officer Wolford said as he eyed the pile of ash on the stoop of the old house that sat in a forgotten cemetery.

Bogo grunted as he pushed his way past his officers and regarded the wolf’s find. He had to look at it for several moments before a breeze stirred a little of the fine debris and fully uncovered the glinting badges, the cloth backing that had been part of both burned away and only the metal, as pristine as the day they been issued, remained.

“Are those…?” the wolf began before his ears and tail fell.

Not caring that he might be destroying evidence, the Cape buffalo reached down and lifted both shields from the ash and held them closer, the reflected sunlight catching his eyes that were already full and causing tears to slip silently down the huge bull’s broad snout. “They are,” the Chief husked as his fingers closed on them. “I’m heading back to the precinct. Let me know what you find the moment you find it,” he ordered in a thick voice, the badges clutched tightly in his hoof.

Not that it really mattered, Bogo thought as he fought down his emotions and slipped a scowl over his features as a mask, his form of protection. Nick Wild and Judy Hopps were gone, he knew it in his gut and in his heart, especially after the cryptic message that the cape buffalo found on his desk that morning. Nick had told Bogo where he was going and that the chances were neither was coming back with one word on it that Bogo would shiver every time he recalled it. It was doubtful that he would ever fully know just what had transpired at the old house, but somehow, as sure as the sun was shining, the two had saved them all yet again, but this time at a terrible cost. It wasn’t until he was well away from the others and in the seclusion of his own personal cruiser that Bogo rested his head on the thick arms folded over the steering wheel and wept.

**Author's Note:**

> And here was my Halloween stand-alone from two years ago as it was originally written. The story was inspired by T.P.B. (thephantombeyond over on Tumblr!) and his vampiric Judy comic that I absolutely loved!
> 
> As for the rabbit that took Judy. Was it Jack Savage? I don't know. Really! I was thinking that his black head fur formed a widow's peak like the perennial Dracula figure from popular cinema, but I didn't intentionally write him as Jack Savage. 
> 
> Then again I do have an almost pathological dislike for the character, so take it as you will!
> 
> You know...I might have to do another one of these someday! ;)


End file.
